Speech

Speech is the primary transmission system of language. It is divided into two subcategories: phonetics and phonology. Phonetics studies the physical properties of speech sounds and how they are produced and perceived. In contrast, phonology examines the rules which govern how sounds are organized and combined to create meaningful words.

Unlike phonemes, allophones do not create distinctions in meaning between one word and another. They are variant ways of articulating the same phoneme. That is to say, they are predictable phonetic variants.

Phonetics studies articulation, i.e. how the sounds of particular languages are articulated in particular contexts. This article explains the articulation of the 24 English consonants. They are categorized as either plosives, nasals, fricatives, affricates or approximants.

Question You define the reduplication process as a repetition of the FIRST syllable. My instructor said that it is the stressed syllable. Is it the first stressed syllable? She had ‘banana’ on the test and…

Phonemes are the basic unit of speech. They are the simplest speech sounds that are used to differentiate between one word and another. A phoneme is capable of creating distinctions in meaning between words.

Phonetics is the study of speech sounds. It investigates the physical properties of speech sounds, how they are produced by the vocal tract, and how people perceive these sounds. The field is typically divided into three areas: acoustic phonetics, auditory phonetics, and articulatory phonetics. Speech therapists are particularly concerned with articulatory phonetics.

Phonological processes help the developing child by simplifying the production of complex speech. If these processes are not eradicated by an appropriate age the child may present with a phonological disorder: systematically altering the structure of words and/or substituting speech sounds.